Immigration officers were on standby last night in case of disruption to automated vehicle checkpoints at the border, after an equipment supplier locked in a legal dispute said its programs would cease functioning at midnight.
The Singaporean subcontractor that provided technology for the system included a 'token' - encrypted software that could stop the computers functioning if it was not paid for by yesterday.
The company, Stratech Systems, has filed a writ for more than $34 million in unpaid fees and damages against ATAL Technologies, a Hong Kong company that is the main contractor for the $595 million e-channel project to speed passenger and vehicle flow across the border.
ATAL said it had replaced Stratech's technology with its own and that fears the system could break down were unfounded. ATAL commercial manager Michael Hall said the company would send staff to the checkpoints to offer 'moral support' to immigration officers.
'If the system crashes, we won't know why. It's unlikely we'll be able to do anything about it because we really don't expect it to happen. We have replaced the part of the system that contained the token, so there's no reason why it should crash,' he said.
Fifty extra immigration officers were sent to checkpoints in case the systems had to be switched to manual. An Immigration Department spokesman said: 'We've deployed additional manpower, but we expect everything to operate as normal.' Immigration officials said the extra staff were being deployed to ease the public's concerns.